In today's world of rapidly changing quality of service (“QoS”) and network standards, it is difficult to use existing hardware or software without making extensive, and usually expensive, modifications to support new standards that may be introduced. Such network standards as Microsoft® defined Network Driver Interface Standard (“NDIS”), Open Systems Interconnection (“OSI”), Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (“IEEE”) Standard(s) 802.x, Integrated Services Digital Network (“ISDN”), and others that are known in the art, have proven to be no exception.
Currently, for instance, no standard way exists for a physical layer system of these network systems to be modified to pass necessary information associated with the physical layer (e.g., priority codes or encoding schemes associated with the physical layer system, interface characteristics, transmission line characteristics, and so on) up through various higher level hardware and software components of an OSI/IEEE system stack to still higher layers of the OSI/IEEE system stack. This physical information would be advantageous, as an example, for certain network protocols.
Other network protocol systems that are “rate adaptive” systems may employ QoS initiatives, such as those associated with the physical layer system. These QoS initiatives may include information concerning the interface characteristics of the physical layer system or the transmission characteristics associated with the physical layer system or data packet. The specification protocols associated with the rate adaptive systems call not only for the employment of an IEEE 802.3 Media Access Control (“MAC”) layer subsystem architecture, but also calls for an associated physical layer system architecture employable to modulate and demodulate signals, for instance, on an “in-home” telephone line. In conjunction therewith, the physical layer system of the rate adaptive network system should accommodate the defined signaling and QoS initiatives.
Standardizing the passing of information, such as QoS signaling and other information, involves modifying, perhaps significantly, interposing layers of the system stack to allow the passing of the information from the physical layer system to, e.g., the data link layer system, the network layer system, or others. Modification of various layers of network protocol stacks, however, may in turn create further problems or concerns.
To illustrate an example of the above problems or concerns, for a particular application, substantial time and effort has been invested to optimize various layers or sub-layers of their system protocol stacks. For instance, the drivers associated with a MAC layer subsystem of the data link layer system are often designed for a particular application. Modification of the MAC layer subsystem may adversely effect other network programs and applications. Therefore, it would be advantageous to be able to employ the current MAC layer subsystem driver despite variations in the physical layer system.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an improved system and method to pass information from the physical layer system for use with the higher layers in a protocol stack associated with a communications device.